Old plastic.

I pulled out my old Squier Strat this evening. It has been in its Gator case for at least the past five years, never seeing the light of day since I last had it into work with me, and I have been retired for over five years.I had oiled the Rosewood fingerboard and fitted new strings before putting it away, and there are a couple of silica gel bags in the case with it.I had commented, back then, how the plastic was aging, but it has gone a whole level further. The pickups are aged ivory, the knobs yellow, and the pickguard a wonderful rich pinky/orangy/lilac hue. I'll have to try and get some photographs. It looks amazing (to my eyes), and is still all original. It is now 23 years old.This picture was taken back in 2011.

That was bought brand new. I had been away from guitar for years and took a fancy to playing again. My then wife bought me an Epiphone PR350-S and I started playing again.That one has since been past on to one of my nephews (when I bought the Larrivée).I started taking lessons, and really needed an electric so I could make use of the "dusty bit" and a workmate gave me a beat up old Asian Strat clone (no idea of the make).It had a dodgy selector switch, so I took it to the local music shop to get repaired. I spotted the Squier in the window, for £129 (1995 price), so asked what he would give me for the wreck against the Squier. When he offered me £70 I near bit his hand off.Long story short - I came home with the new Squier.

Took a couple of photographs this morning, of the Squier. The paper is in the shot to allow me to get the colours correct. All the plastic was Glacier White when I bought the guitar back in 1995. Even the headstock finish is aging nicely. The mark on the guitar body is only the reflection of the case hinge. The plastic finish on the Squier will out last the Sun!

What a beauty - the finish on the neck has darkened to a lovely warm shade. You basically got yourself a lovely tidy strat there, for silly money. I have to say well done for not being blinded by marketing, and seeing that guitar for the great buy it was.

Last night I was looking through my empty string packets fronts. When I restring a guitar I write the date and which guitar it was, on the front of the old packet front and stick it an envelope (I was looking to see what guitar had the oldest strings as I wanted to set it up for open G and remove the 6th string). The oldest "working" guitar was the Les Paul, but the Squier had the oldest set of strings. I had restrung it and stuck it in the case, in storage, in 2010. That was the last time it saw daylight until this past week!The guitar I had most recently strung was my American Stratocaster and that was 2015.My Larrivée, which I bought January 2015, still has it's original strings on, even though the shop I bought it from threw in a new set of string, so I could change them out!